Taken Hold

He kept watch at the edge of the world. He had taken root there long before time began to crawl. It made him sad to think that his brothers and him were so old that their existence had been forgotten by the Gods themselves. They were forgotten and discarded and abused by the human race that once were their stewards. No one sought their knowledge anymore.

The swallows flew close by. At first the small twigs that littered the forest floor is what alerted him to a presence. The smell was completely unfamiliar to him but the sight was not.  It made enough noise to wake the dead. Out of the shadows emerged a little girl no more than maybe the age of ten. She stepped closer still until he could get a good look at her.

"You should not be here." He didn't want her here. Her presence only reminded him of all that he had lost.

"I can't go," came her soft whisper on the wind.

"Why is that?"

"Because you was the one who told me to come." As she neared she held a small emerald in her hand and placed it at his roots.

Slowly each root started to come to life. He lifted the first gnarled root from the dead soil. He didn't understand how this was possible. She wasn't supposed to be human. Now, what was he going to do? He couldn't go before the council with tales of a human......